The islands of Kyuubi
by Behind Reality
Summary: OT The 10 islands of Kyuubi have been invaded by Team Rocket after a 10 year silence. Sam Raynon and his pichu get caught up in the worse to find their plans could mean the end of the world. Their new friend Alex, may very well be tied in. DL
1. Rest in Peace

**Author's Note: Due to having absolutely HUGE chapters, and realizing just now they were absolutely huge, i have taken the liberty of dividing them into two chapters each (so the first four were originally two large ones). Please enjoy! **

"This is a state of emergency!" The speaker echoed throughout the halls, rooms, and even outside the building. "All available cadets _must_ report to their superior officer. Again, this is a state of emergency, all cadets _must_ report to their superior officers."

It was no doubt a state of emergency, none could disagree. The red sirens blared in all rooms, and the halls echoed with steps. The control room was worse off; each officer was scanning the cameras in distress. Few of the cameras were still working, even, the rest showed a fuzzy picture. It was their only clue to where the perpetrator might be, only because it showed were he'd already been, and how fast he was moving. There was the occasionally shout of "There he is!" but the image of the perpetrator would disappear in a fiery blaze and fuzz out once more.

A young boy stood in the middle of the room. His name was Sam, the son of his superior officer, who also the owner of the corporation. He listened to what was being shouted, puzzling it all together, and glancing occasionally to each of the monitors. He had deduced who the enemy was. It was a member of Team Rocket, and no doubt up to no good. The fiery flash was explained as his pokemon. There was one monitor that was never touched, tucked away in the corner, unnoticed by every surveyor but himself. Sam suspected that it was on purpose... maybe they wanted to be caught.

There was a moving under his oversized green hat and a yellow paw stuck up to hoist the brim up so the creature could see. It was a pichu, sitting quietly on Sam's head, and it too had a very calm expression. It watched the same monitor Sam was examining at, and caught a glance of the Rocket member rushing by, and the Blazekin that was following behind it. The pichu tapped Sam's forehead. "Pi?"

Sam nodded softly and the Pichu disappeared again under the hat. Sam stepped lightly back, nobody noticed him. He assumed they were all too busy. It was an easy escape; even his father didn't notice his disappearance. Just as Sam shut the door and began to turn away to his (and the Rocket member's) destination, but instead he bumped into a bright orange shirt, worn by a person he knew very well.

"What you doing, Sammy? You know your fadah wouldn't like yah jumpin' away like dat."

"Oh, Paco, hello!" Sam said nervously.

"You ain't plannin' to go aftuh that Rocket felluh, is yah?" Paco enquired. Everything about this man screamed 'Jamaican'. His bright orange shirt, his blue jeans torn to be the length of his knees, his dark skin, even the dark glasses he never, ever took off, least not that Sam had seen.

"Of course not! I was just going to the bathroom; too much soda, heh." Sam tried to smile. He never quite liked being alone with Paco, only because it made him feel extremely short, which he was.

"Too bad, I wuz plannin' to go dere. I guess I'll jus' go dere alone, if you ent." Paco began to step away, but Sam stopped him short.

"Uh, Paco?"

"I thought so. Hurry, we may miss 'er." Sam gave him a questioning look when he said "her" but he knew there was going to be no answer to it.

As we all wish that nobody was hurt because of this intrusion, there were. After just a few turns down the halls, they came across a mass destruction, and the two stopped short. Sam could feel Pichu shuffle around suddenly on his head. It couldn't see what was happening, but no doubt it could smell the burning flesh.

"What... happened?" Sam said. Paco, as before, didn't answer. He tried to see if any of them had any life left in them. Half had their faces burn off, another half were scarred, and no doubt a portion were dead. Sam said a word of prayer for them as Paco tried as he might to find one that was alive.

"Pa…co, Sam?" Somebody finally said. He lifted his head as best he could; he was one that had his face burnt terribly. He was barely alive, and all knew he wasn't going to be so any much longer. Paco rushed up to him and bent down to his level. Sam stood above them, staring wide eyed, Pichu shuffling even more nervously than before. "Help me up; I don't wanna go down as far as the floor. Thank you… Sam, you gatta stop her, she's up to no good. She… ran that way… I think she wants the information on…" he paused, taking a breath, only to utter a few short words, "Take care, Sandwich." Not another word. Paco reached into the man's pocket, pulled out a wallet, and removed the driver's license.

"'Tis Dave…" Paco said, slamming the wallet shut. Sam was struck silent.

"My… bro—" Sam tried to say, but it never made it passed his lips. Paco handed Sam the wallet. Sam was quiet, reality was his brother was dead, but it felt like a dream… a bad dream. Paco stood calmly, but was shaken also. Dave was a friend to all.

"C'mon," Sam boldly choked out, "no use standing here." They started off. Sam could feel Pichu shuffle around on his head, and shivering when it stopped, and then adjusting again. Nobody was quite right.

"Dey in dere." Paco whispered when he finally stopped. It was the experiment room, a room Sam rarely every went in. They snuck in, and Paco told him to wait for the signal, which Sam hid and waited for.

Paco tiptoed into the main area of the room and peered around. He saw nothing for a moment, and when he tried to turn back to Sam to say he could come out, he came face to face with a pair of glowing red eyes.

"Braze! Wa chu," a woman called, clearly changing her voice to mask how it really sounded. The glowing eyes belonged to the Blazekin that was running around with the Rocket, and no doubt the woman was that rocket. It grabbed Paco and he uttered a cry as it gripped, tightly and painfully.

The woman went back to searching the cabinets. Sam took this opportunity to look at the scene. Pichu slipped out of his hat as if it knew just what it needed to do, and it did. Sam continued to seek around until it was obvious to see what the rocket was doing.

She was tossing everything she saw aside, until it was a total mess all around her, and she would go for the next drawer or cabinet to continue destroying. Sam puzzled, until at last he saw her pull out a green floppy disk and was stuck by a sudden realization.

As if sensing Sam's distress, Pichu flew out of the discarded papers and lashed out at the woman's leg. She screeched, and Blazekin reacted to her immediately by throwing Paco. The poor man was thrown into the cabinets nearby, and they toppled on top of him, and all the metal scraps they were holding. The woman snatched Pichu and threw it away… hesitantly. She didn't have time to recover, and was caught off guard by an amazing punch in the cheek. She slid back and to the floor.

Sam stood tall, but nothing near proud. He took the chance to examine the Rocket more closely. She had sandy hair that was significant to the forth island of Kyubbi, making her from the same island as him. She had fine features, and a very well curved body, and no doubt in his mind that she was nothing older than himself. Had it been any other circumstance, he would have thought her good looking, but he was blinded by hate toward her for his brother.

"You… demon! I…" it was hard for him to think, his brother was dead or dieing in the halls that she and the Blazekin had run through, Paco was under a pile of rubble, and Pichu was thrown far out of sight. "Your Blazekin killed my brother."

If she showed any emotion at all, it was hidden under her hat. The whole time he never saw anymore of her face than her mouth and nose, but they were so indifferent from others nothing was distinct. He felt the claws of the Blazekin close around his arms and he tensed.

The woman spoke, again disguising her voice, "Braze… ko win shi." She whispered. The Blazekin released it grip and stepped back. She stood up and attempted to speak with Sam, but suddenly there was an opening of a pokeball and a Delibird popped out. It took to nature and tossed out one of its presents to Sam and the Rocket, grinning and cawing joyously. Everybody tensed up, they knew the chances of it being a bomb, nine-to-ten, and sure enough, the explosion happened. Blazekin didn't know what to think of it and let out a miniature burst of fire . The room burst into flames, and everybody was caught off guard. The rocket called her Blazekin and it ran out, but the woman stopped to take a last glace back at Sam, seeing him dig through the scrap metal for his friend, but then sped off. She was never caught.

He looked and looked for Paco, but in all his efforts he never found him. Delibird tried to pull him away. "Get off me, Delideli! I need to find Paco!" Even though it was Paco's pokemon, it knew well enough that Sam's efforts were useless. As he dug pokeballs rolled out of the metal scrap pile, and in between Delibird's efforts to get Sam out safely it would pick them up and place them in Sam's open pocket. Pichu finally returned to him and held up the floppy disk that the Rocket tried to escape with. Sam stopped, took it, and stared. _Mewtwo_ was written on the front of it. At last he realized what he should do: protect this information. "Delideli, Pichu, we have to get out."

Pichu stared at him with longing eyes and Sam understood. He called Delibird back to his pokeball and Pichu hid again under his hat. He rushed out and retraced their steps until at they came back to where Dave had died. The area had become covered in flames when the rocket and Blazekin had sped by; it must have been frightened still. Pichu jumped out of Sam's hat and curled up in Dave's lap a moment, whining. Sam reached into his brother's overcoat pocket and pulled out a single pokeball; Dave's one and only pokemon. "Good bye, brother."

A window was not far off from were they stood, already broken open. Sam rushed to it and jumped out the window. It was a fifty story drop, which was enough time for Sam to send out a pidgeot and fly away on its back. That day was known as the day that Corporation Raynon burned down, and the disappearance of Kyubbi's greatest pokemon trainer: Sam the undefeated.


	2. A new trainer

One year later--

It was, with out a doubt, the darkest, coldest day that the first island of Kyubbi, Kaano had seen in years. It rained heavily and there was lighting everywhere. Nobody in their right mind would have gone out on that day, except, maybe, a lone traveler, biking through endless puddles. Clearly she was a woman on a mission.

Not far from were that young lady was a very bored young boy was sitting at his window, reciting his favorite children's book to himself, the Cat in the Hat, over and over again. In a sense, he wished a cat with a large hat would walk in. Maybe even that infamous talking meowth he'd heard rumors about.

"Maybe the Cat in the Hat is a meowth." He questioned.

"Sam, you can stop looking for the soon-to-be trainer." Professor Dogwood said. "He's not coming, not in this weather."

"Actually, I was looking for the cat in the hat," Sam joked. Dogwood was a nice guy, for he'd often take in trainers with a place to go, and Sam was there nearly eleven months without a threat to be kicked out. His pokemon danced about in the lab, playing with the starter pokemon that Sam and the professor had tried so hard to obtain. Left and right he batted a single pokeball, the pokeball that belonged to his brother. He never took it out of its pokeball, just as his brother did. Sam doubted it had ever been outside its pokeball since it was caught; Sam didn't even know what was inside, but knew better and merely pondered.

"Oh, hey, Professor! Somebody's coming down the lane… they look wet."

Professor Dogwood peered outside, and stared at the swaying young woman with a determined air around her. She was beyond wet. Soaked from head to toe and chilled to the bone. Even worse, she was covered in mud and her legs were sore from biking across the island. The closer to the lab she got, the more her bike wavered, until at last it fell over, and she into the mud. Sam was the first to react and sped out to help her.

"Are you okay?" He shouted over the rain and thunder

"Huh? Oh yah!" She said, then sympathetically noted, "Wasn't smart of you to run out into the rain though, I can walk just fine." She stood up, held her stance a moment, and nearly toppled to the ground again had Sam not caught her.

"Except maybe the sprained ankle, miss?" Sam cajoled. He led her inside and sat her down on a chair. He ran back outside again and returned with a black hat that had fallen off her head when she fell and placed it on her head. She thanked him as he sped away into the kitchen to get something warm for her.

"You must be the young lady we were expecting! Actually, we thought you were a lad when we first heard you, but never mind that. Alex, was it?"

Sam returned with a warm drink and blanket for the girl. She took them both before answering and drank it quickly, until the cup was empty. She took a moment to breath and then said, "Yah, sorry if I'm late."

"Nah," The professor said, waving it off, "It was the weather, we thought you'd come tomorrow instead, cause of the rain."

"Haha, you think a little rain would stop me?!" Alex smiled. She had a very cheery out look; with her bright green eyes and soft sand-colored hair.

"Are you from the fourth island?" Sam asked.

"Actually, I don't know. I'm an orphan, my foster family lives on the opposite side of this island. I was told I washed up in a basket. Crazy folks, they be."

"Ah." A thunderclap echoed through the lab and all the young pokemon in the room jumped and screamed. Alas, even Sam's Pichu was startled, let out a short burst of electric shock, and managed to short out the lab… and the whole town. Dogwood sighned and told her to sit tight while he lit some candles for the lab. Sam and Alex stood quiet a moment, awkwardly.

"You think you're ganna need a place to stay te night?" Sam asked. There was something that Sam liked about this girl.

Alex looked in her empty cup and said, "The pokemon were frightened by the lighting and hid away, even if I didn't want to stay, I would have to because my soon-to-be starting pokemon is hidden away from the lighting."

Sam felt a tugging at his leg and then something crawled up and into his hat. Alex knew just what Pichu was feeling: fear; he could feel Pichu shivering nervously. At last dog wood returned with a Charmander and it ran about lighting all of the candles and adjusting flashlights so that everybody could see.

"Alex, if you want you can stay here, I've lost the proper starter pokemon, but when the storm settles down they'll come out. Besides, I would worry myself sick sending you out in this weather."

Alex smiled, "I was hoping I could, but leave me out here with the baby pokemon, I want to make sure they feel safe during the storm."


	3. Battle on the Docks

"Well, Alex," Professor Dogwood said after giving her pokemon in its pokeball, "it seems we must be thee ado! Oh, before you go you may want these," Dogwood dug into his pockets and pulled out a square red device. Alex took it at looked at it. There was a button in the middle and she decided to press it. Wings popped out of the square and it flipped open. "Hello!" It said it an electronic voice. "I'm Dexter, your pokemon data base!" Alex gasped. A picture of a 3D stick man showed up. He disappeared again and on the screen a search engine popped up.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Dogwood commented.

Sam popped up behind her and looked at it over her shoulder. "That's my old one, actually," he noted. "We're and under profited lab so some of the stuff is reused."

Dogwood nodded, "The Kyubbi region isn't really a region for new trainers because of its battle style, but you'll find out about that soon enough." Dogwood then handed her some pokeballs and finished, "If you could, try giving us a call so often. You're the first new trainer we've had in a while; the older ones don't call us anymore. We'd love to know how you're doing!"

"Will do, Professor; Sam!" Alex shook each of their hand and parted.

The rest of the morning was a slow passing. It didn't take long for Sam to return to his chair by the window and stare out onto the little village. Finally he reached the point of boredom were he pulled out his brother's pokeball and started rolling it from hand to hand like a game of handball.

Dogwood finally made up his mind and went over to bother Sam. "You look entertained, Sandwich."

Sam caught his pokeball and ceased his game of handball. "Oh, you bet!" he scoffed. After a moment he spoke again, "I dunno. I love it here, but since no new data has come in; no discoveries, no anything! I've been bored as can be. I love putting puzzles together with you, Professor, but… not much to analyze anymore is there?"

"Maybe you should go do some field work again, Sam. I member when you started up as a trainer with that pichu of yours you said you'd go through the islands for me and collect data. You did a great job, too! Kept this laboratory lively." He bent over and stroked the head of a Charmander that was clinging to his leg.

Sam stood up suddenly and said, "Dogwood, you're right! I'm ganna go back and do field work again! It's time Sam showed his colors and brought a legend back to life."

Dogwood punched the air in victory as Sam was scurrying about to gather his pokeballs and things. "Professor, watch my other pokemon. I'll just be taking Delideli, Pichu, and my brother's old pokemon!" Dogwood saluted him and big him ado. Sam left in such a hurry he nearly left Delibird behind. Dogwood smiled, and returned to his kitchen to clean up after Breakfast.

Not long afterwards there was a knock on the door. Dogwood frowned and peered out the Kitchen. A young boy, probably eleven-years-old was standing at the door.

The professor opened the door and asked what it was he needed.

"Hey, Prof! I'm Alex, the new trainer that called last week about getting a pokemon. Sorry I'm late; I didn't dare go out in such horrible weather."

Dogwood frowned at him, "You mean you're the new trainer that called about a week ago?" The boy nodded. Dogwood froze.

"You've going to be lacking a choice, because a thief popped in and stole one."

It was at the end of the humble little island that Sam caught up with our daring thief. She was sitting at the docks waiting for her ship to arrive. Sam didn't want to approach her immediately. She was given a look over, and he found she'd already caught two pokemon. "I suppose an hour is all you need to start a team up," he whispered.

She looked extremely bored and decided to give the dock a walk around. Sam sat were she sat, and watched her. It seemed like a good way to stealthily get his way. After only five minutes she seemed to have gotten herself in trouble with some punk who couldn't take being bumped into.

"Hey, when you bump into somebody you're supposed to say 'sorry'."

"Yah! Didn't they teach you anything in preschool, moron?" It was one of his goons that had spoken.

Alex sighed, turned to them and said, "Sorry; happy now?"

He sneered, "Oh no, it's too late, missy." He approached her and leaned into her, stroking her cheek. "Though, you might be able to forgive me with something… specific." His sneer became more crescent-shaped and he glanced down. Alex was red with furry, slapped his hand and put a knee into his gut. He stumbled back into his friends, who exclaimed, "Boss!"

He wiped a drip of spittle from his chin and stood up. "You bitch! I'll show you what happens when you deny Saint Nick." It was probably a self appointed title.

He summoned a Graveler and commanded it to crush her. Alex caught on to this and dodged its rollout. She threw out her own pokemon. It was a Ralts; a puny, sloppy little Ralts that knew nearly nothing until it evolved. Sam would have burst out laughing if it had not been a serious matter.

Alex knew its true power. She held it in her arms and dodged the Graveler time after time. It looked like she was waiting for something. Finally she saw it and called out to her Ralts, "Confusion!" A burst of energy came from the Ralts and blew past everybody like a gust of wind, only the rock seemed unaffected.

It was so, for the spinning rock finally stopped tearing up the dock and began to slow its spinning down. Sam thought maybe it had forgotten what it was doing, but that wasn't it. As soon as it stopped it began spinning the opposite direction… towards the gangster. Soon it was flying at him at an impossible speed. He froze, but his friends fled without a second thought, not even to turn back and save him.

All was lost, until he was knocked aside and saved from the speeding Graveler. It continued and at last flew off the dock and fell into the ocean. Saint Nick watched it speed away, and when he looked to see who had save him, found a Torchic sitting on his chest. Before he could comprehend this it started pecking his forehead and screaming at him.

Alex walked up to the gangster and called Torchic off. She then bent over and said, "This is my town, punk." Officer Jenny came suddenly and put Saint Nick under arrest. She thanked Alex for her help. "Anytime, ma'm! I'm all for the police force!"

Pichu had popped out to survey this scene. It puzzled, like its trainer, why Alex had a Torchic. "Maybe she traded."

"With what?" Pichu would have said, but couldn't speak with him. Alex soon returned to her bench, and found it was taken.

"Sam?"

"Oh, greetings! Impressive battle you had there!"


	4. Gym I: Fighting

The two had gone to a nearby dinner for breakfast since Alex's boat wasn't coming for a few hours. She explained that she'd traded with a series of trainers to get her Torchic. She'd started with a Weedle, got it to a Beedril, traded it for a Mosquerain, and then for a Chimcho, and then—the pokemon went on, and Sam wondered what would happen if he started with a Wurple and started trading it. He chuckled at the thought of ending up with something like a Charizard or even a Lapras.

"Is something funny?" Alex asked. She kept her Ralts sitting nicely in her lap, it holding a spoon and eating its cereal, exclaiming suddenly and spilling its spoon all over the place. Sam watched it for a short time as his own Pichu sat beside the bowl dipping his toast in the cereal and eating it.

"You got a weird Pichu, Sammy." Alex mentioned.

"And your Ralts isn't?" It struck him then: Ralts wasn't a naturally found in Kyubii. Also Ralts never leaves its first trainer only because of its emotional attachment. "Where'd you get that Ralts?"

"Oh, her? I caught her just outside town. She was wandering around aimlessly so I figured I'd snatch her up." She petted her Ralts and it coo'ed, tossing another spoonful of cereal everywhere. Sam was convinced. Then Alex perked up, "Before I forget; Why are you down here? I thought you worked up in the lab!"

"I decided to go back to field work. I used to work for Dogwood collecting data for pokemon like that."

Alex stood up and slammed her hand down on the table, ginning wildly; Ralts fell off her lap and flung another spoonful around, finding itself under the table, and Pichu found that he had a blow of cereal on his head, not quiet sure what to do about it. "Sam, you should come with us!"

Several people turned and stared at the miniature fiasco; "Pichu, pi-pi," Pichu questioned, which translated meant, "Who turn the lights off?"

"Raaaaalts!" Ralts exclaimed, which also translated meant, "Wasn't me, but it sure is dark in here!"

Sam nodded and asked for the check. They scurried away from the bit of chaos. "We're you heading?" Sam asked when they were safe from the possibility of being recognized.

"Welp, I was going to go and take on the Gym challenge, like Dogwood had mentioned. They sound kinda fun."

"Well, you're in for a rude awakening. There is one on the Island thought, deep in the forest." Alex's eye's twinkled. Sam signed, but smiled in spite of himself. It was fortunate that it was just outside the town and they make a quick jog to it. Unlike the gyms that most trainers are accustomed to, this one was in the forest. Alex gazed at large almost dojo like building. Inside pokemon were wrestling. She looked at Sam curiously. He shrugged and continued in.

Inside trainers were screaming and cheering. Pokemon were standing in fighting rings, jabbing, punching, and kicking each other. There was a young lady standing behind a counter who was quiet until she felt that they had absorbed the area enough. "Welcome to Kaano village Gym."

"Hey, Suzu!" Sam said. Her eyes shone brightly and she jumped over the desk and hugged him.

"Sam!! It's been too long since you disappeared! When me and my husband heard about the incident at the Raynon, I nearly passed out and he was in a panic!" She hugged him again. It was then she saw Alex and said, "Oh! Yes, you came in with Sam. Are you interested in the battles the gym has to offer, by chance?"

A door opened just then and a small, lanky looking fellow. He wore an outfit similar to a karate master's, but his face was soft and kind. A manchop followed after him, smiling it its own way. The karate master turned and examined Sam, and then smiled, "Sam!! It's good to see you!" He shook Sam's hand and then the manchop shook his hand.

"Hey, Hitoshi and Hiro," Sam said calmly. "Glad to see you're both doing well."

"What brings you here?"

"Got you a new challenger." He pointed to Alex, who stood rather stupidly with her Ralts. Hitoshi smiled and said, "Welcome to Kaano Village gym! I would guess you have no idea what the rules of the gym are, would yah?" Alex shook her head in response. Hitoshi laughed and swung an arm around her shoulder, and dragged her along to show her the gym.

As Alex saw it, the new gym style was confusing. Instead of a standard battle it was a kick boxing match. Pokemon would work their way up the ranks to battle the leader, himself. Trainers were silent and only physical and verbal attacks could be used. They had a few extra rules, and the biggest rule was "No psychic pokemon!"

Ralts understood this and flopped down in shame. Hitoshi had finished with that final, depressing rule. Alex picked up Ralts and asked, "Does size matter?"

"The branches are made so that little pokemon battle little pokemon, medium to medium, and large to large, but as you get higher in the ranks you'll probably end up fighting a different size types."

Alex pulled out a pokeball and tossed out her Torchic. "What class?"

Hitoshi thought, "Probably rank 2, the second smallest class."

"What are her chances against each class?"

"She'll do fine until she's against a rank 4, maybe 3 if she's kinda weak."

Alex grinned, "I think we'll do fine, then."

Alex entered immediately and was put up to fight just as quickly. Her battles went quickly and well paced. In time her Torchic became a favorite fighter, and was being cheered for and against. The branches went up slowly, though. Sam took his time to look at how many forks there were. He'd counted nearly a hundred."

Alex sighed, healing Torchic. It bounced around looking like it was ready to fight a million more. "This could take a week. The battles are getting harder and torchic toss wont work well on the larger pokemon, like 4 and up… how long until rank 2 and 3 merge?"

"Thirty matches."

Alex bent down and said to her torchic, "Can you take thirty more battles?"

Torchic bounced around happily.

"Even thought your match after next is against a maril with a mean water gun?"

Torchic stopped and kicked the ground in shame.

"One last battle, and then you are getting a big milkshake." Ralts gasped in horror. "You too, Ralts." It grinned again.

Soon it was Torchic's next fight. He bounced on the mat, ready to take on whatever was thrown at her. The crowd cheered and whooped, booed and hissed. Torchic couldn't hear any of this. "Good luck, Torchic!" Sam called from the crowed, and Torchic nodded to him.

Alex called her over a moment and said, "Here, wear this, it's honorary to anybody who wins the first twenty without a loss." She tied a red headband on Torchic's head. It looked very professional, and Torchic felt proud to wear it. When it heard the opening of a pokeball it whipped around and met her foe.

It was a Ghastly.

Alex gave a ghastly expression when she saw this.

Torchic didn't know better, and charged at it. It attempted a peck, but the Ghastly disappeared before its eyes. She whipped around and tried to ram into it. Again, it just disappeared. Torchic panicked when she couldn't find her foe. Finally it reappeared. Torchic ran again for it, jumped and finally grabbed onto it. Victory seemed, in a near literal sense, in her grasp. She waited for her triumph move to come into play: use the defender as a trampoline, jump and use its own weight against him to nock him silly. When the Ghastly was inches above the ground, Torchic got ready to jump on impact, but it never came. The Ghastly kept sinking, and sinking, until it disappeared under her feet and left her standing on the ground.

Torchic was baffled and bolted around like crazy looking for the ghastly. She finally got tired and plopped down on its rear. She thought a moment, thinking maybe it had gone out of bounds, but there was no such thing if it were underground, according to the rules. Then she felt a rumbling, and was thrown into the air. Ghastly was waiting to tire her out and then was going to take her down fast and with out pity. Torchic was battered all across the mat and finally thrown out of the ring all together. Sam, the closest, ran over and caught her.

"Torchic is out of the ring! Ghastly is the winner!"

The cheers came; no groans, no moans, only cheers.

Alex was devastated. People… could be so crule.


End file.
